New York City delivery tips plunge as app changes shift pay mix

Average tips for food-delivery couriers in New York City fell sharply to roughly $0.76 per delivery, a decline of about $3 compared with a few years ago, a City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection analysis found. The drop in per-order tipping coincided with major platform changes to how tipping is presented at checkout and adjustments to fees and pay displays on delivery apps.

The change in user experience on restaurant and delivery apps moved suggested tipping to after checkout or altered how tips are shown to customers, researchers and regulators say, and that appears to have materially reduced visible tip amounts. At the same time, the city began enforcing a minimum-pay rule for app delivery workers in December 2023. Enforcement raised base pay levels, and DCWP analysis credits that step with increasing total pay for couriers by about $1.2 billion even as per-delivery tips fell.

For couriers, the shift means a different pay mix: less of daily income coming from variable, customer-facing tips and more from guaranteed platform pay. That can provide steadier earnings and reduced month-to-month volatility, but it also eliminates a portion of discretionary upside that many couriers historically relied on to boost nightly hauls. Workers who timed deliveries for peak tipping windows or cultivated repeat customer relationships may see those strategies yield smaller returns under the new tipping dynamics.

Restaurants and platforms are also part of the equation. App design changes that reduce tip visibility can affect customer behavior, and higher platform fees can reshape how much of the transaction goes to restaurants, delivery workers, and the platforms themselves. Changes to checkout flow and fee structures can create tension between merchants seeking predictable commission rates and couriers depending on tips to supplement pay.

The broader consequence is a marketplace negotiation playing out through user experience and regulation. Enforcement of minimum pay demonstrated that municipal rules can materially alter how platform companies allocate dollars to workers, even as interfaces and fee models shape consumer tipping habits. That tension will be central to ongoing debates over fairness, transparency, and who ultimately bears the cost when platforms restructure payments.

For couriers, managers, and restaurant owners in New York City, the takeaway is practical: track earnings by component, not just gross totals. As platforms continue to tweak checkout flows and fee schedules, workers should monitor base-pay calculations and services' tip displays. Policymakers and worker advocates will likely keep watching platform UX and pay enforcement to assess whether the current mix of guaranteed pay and tips produces the intended balance of stability and incentive.